away they sent me a message right worthy of themselves but not of me — to the effect, namely, that they would give me horses for myself personally and for my companions, but none for my luggage. And thus, being very much annoyed, as was natural, I had to give to my guide as pay, objects of the worth of fifty pieces of gold. And as I had no means of retaliating upon Nicephorus for his ill deeds, I wrote these verses on the wall of my hated habitation, and upon a wooden table :
False is Argolian faith, be warned and mistrust it O Latin ;
Heed thee and let not thine ear be lent to the words that they utter.
When it will help him the Argive will swear by all that is holy!
Lofty, with windows tall, ornate with varying marble.
This dwelling, deticient in water, admits the sun in its confines,
Fosters the bitterest cold, nor repels the heat when it rages.
Liutprand a bishop I, from Cremona a town of Ausonia,
Hither for love of peace to Constantinople did journey;
Here I was kept confined throughout the four months of the summer.
For before Bari's gates had appeared the emperor Otto,
Striving to take the place by flame alike and by slaughter.
Thence, by my prayers induced, he hastens to Rome, his own city,
Greece meanwhile having promised a bride for the son of the victor.
O had she ne'er been born, and I had been spared this grim journey;
Safely avoiding the wrath that Nicephorus since has poured on me—
He who prohibits his stepchild from wedding the son of my master!
Lo, the day is at hand, when war, impelled by fierce furies.
Wildly shall rage o'er earth's limits, should God not see fit to avert it.
Peace which is longed for by all, because of his guilt will be silent!
After writing these verses, on the sixth day before the Nones of October (Oct. 2), at the tenth hour, I entered my boat with my guide, and left that once most rich and flourishing, now half-starved, perjured, lying, wily, greedy, rapacious, avaricious, vain-glorious city ; and after forty- nine days of ass-riding, walking, horse-riding, fasting, thirsting, sighing, weeping, groaning, I came to Nau- pactus, which is a city of Nikopolis. And here my guide deserted me after placing us on two small ships, and committing us to two imperial messengers who were to bring me by sea to Hydronto. But since their orders did
